A celebrated pianist of “breathtaking charisma” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “uncommon sensitivity” (New Yorker), Inon Barnatan brings Portland Piano International’s season to a close with a program of mesmerizing music by Rachmaninoff and Schubert.
Rachmaninoff’s early Moments musicaux showcase signature elements of the Russian composer’s unabashedly romantic music — lush melodies, heightened expression, and thunderous, bell-like sounds — while honoring Schubert’s own Moments musicaux, emotional tone poems one critic called “intimate confidences from Schubert’s innermost soul.” And Rachmaninoff’s nostalgia-laced Symphonic Dances, his final expression of unfulfilled longing for home after 20 years of exile in the US, is born anew in Barnatan’s explosive transcription for solo piano.
